Nevada Union drills Wave hoops

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — The Nevada Union boys basketball team bounced back from a tough weekend with a 63-38 win over the Fallon Greenwave Monday night at Albert Ali Gymnasium.

Junior post player David Menary, Nevada Union’s leading scorer, had another stellar game for NU. Menary came out strong with eight first quarter points, building up a lead the Miners never let waver. He controlled the post throughout the game, gracefully making space for his own shots and attracting extra defense that freed up other shooters. Menary finished the game with 18 points, tied for the most with shooting guard Jahn Chensee.

Chensee caught fire in the second quarter with three 3-pointers that established a daunting lead going into the second half. He finished with five 3s in the game. Chensee played well defensively too, forcing turnovers that gave the Miners several fast break opportunities.

Nevada Union head coach Jeff Dellis was very happy to have this kind of play from Chensee.

“I challenged them last game that we needed a second and third scorer to step up,” he said.

Chensee met the challenge. Dellis went on to talk about Chensee’s development as a player and teammate this season.

“He’s starting to accept more responsibility,” Dellis said. “He wants to defend the other teams best player. He’s becoming much more multi-dimensional.”

Chensee echoed the urgency of Dellis’ challenge.

“We lost three games in the Mel Good tournament,” Chensee said. “We had to bounce back.”

The Miners are now 7-4 in nonleague play and head to the Whitney Tournament on Saturday after a four-day hiatus.

Sierra Foothill League play starts Jan. 6 at home against Del Oro.

“Its about to get a lot more competitive and that’s always fun,” said Chensee when talking about the upcoming SFL schedule. “Those games are more intense, more energy going.”

The Miners got a good turnout from sophomore Gary Menary who scored eight points and had 12 rebounds in Monday’s win.

NU’s Chance Brown chipped in seven points and six rebounds.

The Greenwave (0-2 Northern Division I-A, 1-6 overall) was led by Jeff Evett who had 19 points. The team was down for most of the game but continued to play with focus.

“We have our philosophies and our rules,” said Fallon coach Brad Barton. “We just want to stay active and get after it, be scrappy no matter what, especially when you are playing a good basketball team like that. You want to look for every opportunity you can to stay up and fix the problem, we are just working on stuff. As long as we’re still working on things we’re in good shape.”

Fallon returns to California on Saturday for the Trojan Toss Up in Folsom.